I. Field
The following description relates generally to communication networks and more particularly to energy conservation and distributed processing though the use of shared wireless wide area network modems.
II. Background
Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, data, and so on. These systems may be multiple-access systems capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing available system resources (e.g., bandwidth and transmit power). Examples of such multiple-access systems include code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) systems, orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems, and other systems.
A typical wireless communication network (e.g., employing frequency, time, and code division techniques) includes one or more base stations that provide a coverage area and one or more mobile (e.g., wireless) terminals that can transmit and receive data within the coverage area. A typical base station can concurrently transmit multiple data streams for broadcast, multicast, and/or unicast services, wherein a data stream is a stream of data that can be of independent reception interest to a mobile terminal. A mobile terminal within the coverage area of that base station can be interested in receiving one, more than one, or all data streams carried by the composite stream. Likewise, a mobile terminal can transmit data to the base station or another mobile terminal.
When a user desires to communicate over a network, that user operates a device and a modem of the device is utilized to perform the communication functions. However, this can consume the device's energy, which can become a concern especially if the user is not near a power source. Further, at times a quality of the device's link might be low, resulting in signal degradation, which can negatively affect the user's communication experience.